Fuel and oil supplier Shell has delivered a 25 per cent gain to Ferrari's Formula 1 engine in 2015, equating to almost half a second a lap, Autosport can reveal.

Ferrari has produced a remarkable turnaround in form this season to finish second in the constructors' championship, having been off the pace in fourth the previous year.

A large part of that gain has been put down to the engine, following extensive development over the winter, but the influence of fuel and lubricants is also significant.

With the regulations allowing for in-season development on the engine, Shell has delivered five new blends of fuel to coincide with power unit upgrades from Ferrari.

"We always planned to undertake an aggressive development programme with Ferrari this year and it has culminated in five new fuel formulations over the year," Shell innovation manager Guy Lovett told Autosport.

"Putting them all together, that gives 25 per cent of the overall performance gain of the power unit has been delivered from our fuel and oils, which is a substantial margin.

"In real terms, that equates to almost half a second a lap on an average circuit, which is approximately 30 seconds over an average race distance.

"In an average year, we would normally target anything from one to four new fuels across the year with four being usually the upper maximum.

"The regulations opened up to allow for in-season power unit development and that allowed for us to remap and reoptimise the fuels at every change of engine architecture Ferrari developed through the season."

The rules permit further in-season development of engines next season, which will make fuel and lubricants a key battle ground once more.

"From a technical standpoint, it's really interesting the rules have remained open as it gives us more opportunity to demonstrate technical capabilities," added Lovett.

"As an engine is developing, it is usually changing with regards its requirement for fuels and oils.

"We've improved the way we work with Ferrari and the aim is to continue with our aggressive development programme."

Ferrari's technical director James Allison reckons Kimi Raikkonen is a bigger challenge for teammate Sebastian Vettel than the points gap between them suggests.

Vettel ended the season well clear of Raikkonen in the standings, scoring almost twice the points of his Finnish teammate and securing all three of the team's 2015 wins.

But Allison suggested Raikkonen had actually pushed Vettel closer throughout the season than the results suggested.

"There have been a number of occasions where he has made Sebastian sweat and made him have to stretch himself to keep his teammate at bay," Allison told the BBC.

Allison highlighted Raikkonen's season-best finish of second in Bahrain in particular, as well as the Finn's pace at Silverstone - where he outqualified Vettel, but finished the race just eighth in mixed conditions.

"[At Silverstone], Sebastian was utterly candid that he couldn't live with Kimi at various sections of the track in the race, he was not as quick," Allison pointed out.

"But at other times in the year a few errors have crept in and [Raikkonen] has had some real misfortune, where our reliability has dropped the ball for him.

"But what we have seen through the season, and latterly particularly, is Kimi really making Sebastian work for his money."

The Finn is under contract with Ferrari until the end of the 2016 season.

The calmness brought by Ferrari's new driver lineup was a "relief" to the team, Kimi Raikkonen says. Last year, turmoil at the fabled Maranello marque was arguably worsened by tension in the pits, where Finn Raikkonen and the now-departed Fernando Alonso barely exchanged a word.

But this year, in a lineup that will remain in place for 2016, Raikkonen was paired with Sebastian Vettel, who is not only a quadruple world champion but also a rare friend of Raikkonen's within the F1 paddock. "It is of course nicer for the drivers that they are on speaking terms, are able to work together and talk about things," Raikkonen told the Finnish broadcaster MTV this week on a media visit to Helsinki.

"For the team, it is a pretty big relief and also an advantage that there is no secrecy or politics," the 2007 world champion added. As for working with Vettel, Raikkonen continued: "We both like pretty much the same sort of car -- our setups are always pretty close. That makes it easier for the team to work and also to develop the car."

Ferrari, however, openly considered ending the pairing for 2016, with Valtteri Bottas said to have been the obvious candidate to replace the older Finn. But Bernie Ecclestone thinks Ferrari was right to re-sign the 36-year-old, telling La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Are you sure there is someone who could have done a better job for Ferrari than Kimi Raikkonen? I'm not sure."

Raikkonen also dismisses the notion that he is now struggling to be fully competitive in F1. "Next year will be another chance to start from zero," he said, admitting that his 2015 campaign overall was only "average". "However, the pace was ok compared to last year. If you do not have the momentum, that is a much more worrying situation, even if of course there is always a lot of room for improvement." (GMM)

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne is confident his team can return to the top of Formula One but says the really hard work will start next year.

After a disastrous 2014 campaign with just two podiums in 19 races, Ferrari returned to winning ways in 2015 with three victories over the course of the season. In doing so the team exceeded its target of two wins this season, but speaking at Ferrari's Christmas lunch Marchionne said the hard work would truly start next year as the team targets world champions Mercedes.

"You know that the real battle starts in 2016, but we can count on two drivers who have already been world champions and engineers who can take us back to the top," he said. "This year, we'd have been happy with two wins, but we managed three, as well as a whole host of podium finishes.

"The most important thing is that, above all, we made the most of our in-house resources, without taking on too many outsiders."

Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene also delivered a motivational message to his employees.

"Our aim for next year is to work with even more determination, to deserve this badge that we must wear with honour," Arrivabene said. "A special thanks goes to our President, who has always supported us, putting himself in the front line. 'We race' is in our DNA."

Ferrari returned to form in 2015 with 16 podiums, including three wins – its best season since 2010. The team scored 428 points, the most it has managed since the new points system came into F1 that year. So what inspired it and how far can this resurgence go?In this new short video, James Allen and former F1 chief engine Dominic Harlow chat with presenter Holly Samos about Ferrari’s return to winning ways in and explore what will be the key to them challenging next season with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen for the F1 Drivers’ world title, which they have not won since 2007.

Mercedes has made it clear that it does not suspect Ferrari of gaining any knowledge of its Formula 1 engine technology, despite the recent case surrounding engineer Ben Hoyle.

The German car manufacturer has taken Hoyle to court over suspicions that he tried to take engine data with him ahead of an imminent departure from the team's power unit department.

Court documents lodged by Mercedes said that Hoyle had been expected to join Ferrari, but the Italian team has insisted that, while informal talks took place, no agreement was reached for him to join it.

In a bid to ensure that there was no suggestion of Ferrari doing anything untoward, Mercedes issued a statement on Tuesday clarifying that it views the matter as being strictly between itself and Hoyle.

"The investigation has shown no reason to believe that information has been transferred to Ferrari, nor have any of the court documents made any allegation regarding any inappropriate conduct by Ferrari," said the Mercedes statement.

"Mercedes will continue to protect its interests, including carrying on the legal proceedings against Mr. Hoyle, and continue to protect against potential inappropriate transfer of confidential information within the motorsport industry."

Investigation continuesMercedes says it expects its investigation in to Hoyle's activities to continue for several months yet.

"There are on-going internal investigations, regarding confidential information being removed from Mercedes by Mr. Hoyle, in order to protect against potential damage to both Mercedes and any company which could potentially receive such information," he said.

"Mercedes will continue with these investigations until it can conclude that all the confidential information is recovered, which is anticipated to take a further 2-4 months."

Mario Andretti, a motor racing legend and former Ferrari driver, says he can imagine the Maranello marque taking on Mercedes for the title in 2016.

"Yes, of course," he is quoted by Italy's Omnicorse.

"It seems to me that the atmosphere is very motivated and serene, and (Sebastian) Vettel is the right person for Maranello.

"I think the conditions are right for them to give their best next year," Andretti, an Italian-born American who is now 75, added.

Andretti, who won his title in 1978 with the original Lotus team, said he thinks Ferrari this year laid the foundation for a championship challenge in 2016.

"What I see now is a team that does not think about winning a race every now and then, as happened in 2015, but a team that will fight for the title. And I sincerely hope they do," he said.

Meanwhile, he was also asked about F1's current champion Lewis Hamilton and his controversial balance between success at Mercedes and a 'rock star' lifestyle.

"He lives for the day," Andretti said of the Briton. "He is having fun and I don't want to say 'modern', but it is with a very personal style.

"But he's a good guy. He knows what his priorities are and we should not blame him for anything. I don't think his way of life affects his performance -- I can see him remaining as a driver at the very top," he added.http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns32748.html?

quoteKimi enjoys Christmas break but already thinks about the next season

Maranello, 21 December – Kimi Raikkonen is taking a few days off to recharge his batteries, but his mind is already set on the 2016 season and the challenge ahead.

This was not your first Christmas as a Ferrari driver, but this year did you feel there was something different, maybe in the atmosphere, a sense of optimism?

“The year has finished and obviously for the next year people always expect more than the team did well this year, but it’s always different. There were some new people and the atmosphere overall has been very good in the team this year compared to the previous year and obviously that’s normal for us. For the Christmas everybody seems to be more happy. Obviously a long season is finished and soon everybody gets some time off, there is a relaxed feeling”.

Just talking about next year, our President and Maurizio said that everyone in the team must work hard up to improve his game. What do you think you’ll be doing next year?

“Obviously we all know where we want to be as Ferrari, Ferrari wants to win and it will not be easy, I mean, there are a lot of strong teams and all of them have the same idea of winning races and championships. Obviously, having done better this year, we have more expectations for the next one, but we are here for winning races, to win championships, so we will give our 100% to try to bring back the championship for Ferrari, but it’s too early to say. We can do our best but we can’t control what the others do, so we have to keep working the same way, always improving, then we will see where we end up in the next year. There’s not point to start guessing, we have to wait until the winter tests and the first race”.

Meanwhile we have some Christmas break ahead of us. What do you think you’ll be doing over Christmas? Just relaxing at home?

“I’ll just have some time with my family. Unfortunately we don’t have such a long break, we restart in January already, so I’ll have some time off to relax and get ready for next year”.